InDesign CS2 - 100 document limit and compatibility with newer versions

Question

Hello,
I have Adobe InDesign CS2 and am using it to compile a large report. I have come across a problem once i tried to add more than 100 documents to my book and now see there is a 100 file limit to books in CS2. Each document needs to stay as a single file so i am unable to join files to overcome this problem.
I have a summary table at the beginning of the document detailing the title of each file in the book. I am unable to work out how to create page hyperlinks in the pdf to the second book (documents over the 100 mark).
It has since come to fruition that my company has updates to CS3 and CS5 and that these new versions do not have a 100 file limit in creating books. This document i am creating is over 400 pages long so i am wary of upgrading to a new version when i am not far from publishing.
Should i have any concerns in upgrading to a new version of InDesign when i have almost finished my report? Would it be better to just upgrade to CS3 and not make such a large jump to CS5? Or does anyone know how to create page hyperlinks in my pdf to the files contained in the second book?
Thanks for any help! Much appreciated.

Answer 1

Normally I would advise against changing versions in midstream on a project like this, but I'm not sure you have a choice. My instinct is there will be fewer issues moving to CS3 than CS5, but there are far more features in CS5 you might like to use...
One way to limit the possible anomalies would be to export all the CS2 files to .inx na open those in CS5, rather than converting the .indd files directly, then save as new CS5 .indd files and add to a new book. One very serious issue you may run into wehn moving to a later version is that the text engines are updated and text won't necessarily flow exactly the same, particualry justified text, which can cause line endings to move and some paragraphs may gain or lose a line, which can have a really devastating effect on a long doc if it causes a page count to shift. The killer is that the changes normally don't happen until you start to edit text in that story. I believe the .inx route will force a recompose on opening, but I'm not dead certain, so take a look at http://indesignsecrets.com/force-text-reflow-when-indesign-forgets-to-flow-the-text.php to see how to force the recompose manually as soon as you open the file (you'd only need to do it once, before saving in the new version, for each file), then check carefully for oversets or other problems. Live preflight in CS5 can help with that.
As you can tell, a successful move to a newer version is likely to be a lot of careful work preparing and checking the files. Some of it can be automated (the export to .inx, the recompose, and the save in the new version) by scripting, but in all honesty you're going to need to check every page when you are done.
One of the others who uses Hyperlinks will need to weigh in on ID's native abilities and linking to other files in a book. I know that doing that with cross-references (which don't even exist natively prior to CS4) is extremely likely to break down at some point and leave you trying to remake them all, and large numbers of links across docs is likely to slow CS5 in particular to a crawl unless all files (at least the ones to which there are links in the doc you are editing) in the book are open.